EYA PRESS RELEASE – The most creative digital projects with impact on society have been selected

The most creative digital projects with impact on society have been selected

SALZBURG – Sighted people help the blind via video calls with everyday tasks, young people „adopt“ seniors and translators offer their service via smart phones breaking down language barriers at any time. These are only three topics that are covered by the winning projects of the European Youth Award 2016. The international jury of the European Youth Award – a pan-European contest for young digital social start-ups – selected this year’s winning projects in a two day meeting in Larnaca, Cyprus, end of September.

The 18 jurors of the #EYA16 Onsite Grand Jury had intense and constructive discussions and finally chose 11 winning projects for this year’s European Youth Award. They range from gadgets for bicycle navigation over a job platform mediating part time jobs using geo-navigation to videogames helping to improve the cognitive skills of children with Down syndrome. Juror Sohvi Sirkesalo from Finland about the Onsite Jury meeting: „We had to evaluate many good projects. Especially the diversity of the projects impressed me. I was very happy to work in a team of experts from all over Europe. It was an enriching experience because each member of the jury had a different business background and I enjoyed the good balance between countries, gender and age.“

Among the winners in the category Healthy Life is the project „Be my Eyes“ (produced by 28-years old Alexander Hauerslev Jensen from Denmark) that connects blind people with sighted volunteers, to help the blind with their dayto-day challenges. The project convinced the jury not only by the outstanding idea, but especially by the good technical performance and the high social impact. Solving every day’s problems for the blind, this app also reduces mutual reservations. There are already 370.000 volunteers registered from 149 countries to assist 28.000 blind people.

The winning projects are from 8 different European countries: Denmark (2 projects), Spain (3 projects), Germany, Italy, Sweden, France, Serbia and Romania. Among many other benefits, the EYA winners profit by a three month mentorship-program and will be recognized and honored at the international EYA stage at the Winners Event (EYA Festival) taking place in the city of Graz, Austria, from November 30 to December 3. They will have the opportunity to pitch their outstanding projects to a multi stakeholder audience and the EYA Grand Jury that will select the Overall Winner based on the winners’ pitches for the fifth time in 2016. Furthermore they receive project checks from students from all over Europe and become part of a vibrant network. Please find the complete list of the winning projects and the festival program here: http://www.eu-youthaward.org/

More information for editors:

In two online jury rounds and one onsite jury round international specialists selected 11 winning projects out of 167 submissions. All submissions have been evaluated by technical and strategic criteria. The online jury was formed by 50 experts from all over Europe; 18 experts acted as onsite jury select the winning projects.

The winning projects in the Special Category 2016 will be selected by a special Jury on October 19 in Graz and will be presented together with all winners at the EYA Festival in Graz.

About the European Youth Award (EYA)

Called into life by Prof. Peter A. Bruck, honorary chairman of the International Center for New Media, in 2012, the European Youth Award (EYA) is a leading pan-European competition honouring excellence in the use of Internet and mobile applications for social empowerment. Conducted under the patronage of the Council of Europe, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, EYA as annual contest seeks to motivate young people under the age of 33 to produce socially-valuable digital projects addressing the goals defined by the Council of Europe and Europe 2020.

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